Worms! Our garden's recyclers! Without them, our soil would not be as rich and aerated, and our plants would not grow as abundantly.

We can also take advantage of the wonderful work that worms do in our very own worm farm. These hungry little creatures will consume at least half their own body weight of organic material every day, and they multiply profusely in a well maintained worm farm.

There are various commercial worm farms available for sale, but for many of us creating our own adds more satisfaction, as well as helping to recycle materials rather than always buy new.

Below are several simple home made DIY worm farm ideas to get you started.

Plastic Crate Worm Farm

This method uses lidded plastic storage crates, layered, with holes drilled in, to create a worm farm. A tap is fitted to the bottom crate for draining the wonderful liquid which is produced in the worm farm. This makes a truly amazing fertiliser for your whole garden, when diluted, usually at about 1 part worm liquid to 10 parts water. Place this worm fertiliser in a watering can and apply to your plants.

The video below shows the construction of a plastic crate worm farm.

Simple Styrofoam Box Worm Farm

Styrofoam is one of those things that lasts almost forever in landfill, so reusing Styrofoam boxes for your worm farm puts them to good use. The Styrofoam is also a good insulator for worms in extreme climates, although care must naturally still be taken.

Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make a Styrofoam box worm farm!

Tyre Worm Farm

Once again, a good way to recycle something. Tyres are long lasting so make a good solid worm farm. With this method a platform is built from bricks and a piece of wood, with holes drilled to allow liquid to escape. The tyres are then placed in a tower on top of the platform. By placing a container, such as an ice cream container, under the holes in the platform you can harvest your worm liquid. A rubbish bin lid, or another piece of wood, can be placed on the top tyre as a lid.

The video below shows 2 children building a tyre worm farm.

Bin or Barrel Worm Farm

As is shown in the following video, a very simple worm farm can be built out of a bin or barrel, once again raised up on a platform, with holes to allow the liquid to escape.

Built Worm Farm

Especially good for worm farms on a larger scale, bricks or old railway sleepers can be stacked to create worm farm beds. These can be built to whatever scale suits your purposes. You can add kitchen scraps, along with garden waste and manure, which will be happily munched by your growing worm colony. Cover the surface with an old carpet, hessian bags or a piece of wood to keep moisture in and light out, for a perfect worm bed.

The video below shows a brick worm farm, built in two sections with bricks with holes separating the beds. As the worms consume most of what is in one bed, they migrate to the next bed.

Worm Farm Box

Worm farms can be built out of wood, in box form, with a hinged or lift off lid.

In the video below we can see how one man has created a large purpose-built box for his worm farm.

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Part 2

Part 3

The ideas below are a little different from the norm, and use the Permaculture principle of integration rather than segregation.

Worm Farm Pathway

This worm farm method involves using the paths in your garden, or greenhouse, as worm farms. Organic material such as leaves, veggie scraps, manure, coffee grounds etc are places along the path area. Worms are added, then covered with more organic material. A walkway, such as old pallets, is then placed on top so that you aren't walking directly on the worms, risking compacting and squashing.

Once or twice a year, pull up the pallets and dig out the wonderfully rich worm compost and add it to your garden.

Alternatively, you can pull up the pallets and plant this area, allowing plants to directly access this amazingly fertile location. Your path worm farms can then be moved to other areas that were previously planted and now in need of some revitalisation. And so the process continues...

The video below illustrates the creation of path worm farms.

Free Range Worm Farm

This idea places the worm farm containers right in the garden and allows worms to move freely in and out of them. Large buckets are well drilled with holes large enough for worms to pass freely through, bottom and sides, and placed in holes dug in the ground. Kitchen scraps etc are then placed into these buckets for the worms to feast upon. Lids, or some kind of cover, are needed to provide ideal conditions for the worms.

The video below explains the process of a free range worm farm.

Hopefully these ideas have given you some food for thought on your worm farm venture. If you do make your own worm farm we'd love to hear from you and post your ideas and photos on this site!